Move along, now…
John Knubley, Deputy Minister of Industry Canada, has responded (pdf) to the letter ICANN sent to both the U.S. FTC and Canada regarding the .sucks domain name.
Knubley basically states that this is not a matter for the government, and that if intellectual property rights holders think a .sucks domain infringes their mark, they already know what to do about it:
Canada’s laws provide comprehensive protections for all Canadians. Canada has intellectual property, competition, criminal law and other relevant legal frameworks in place to protect trademark owners, competitors, consumers and individuals. These frameworks are equally applicable to online activities and can provide recourse, for example, to trademark owners concerned about the use of the dotSucks domain, provided that trademark owners can demonstrate that the use of dotSucks domains infringes on a trademark. Intellectual property rights are privately held and are settled privately in the courts.
The FTC already responded to the letter by basically saying “I told you so”.
Some trademark holders believe the .suck registry is extorting them to keep their .sucks domains out of the hands of others.
Move the Internet to Canada …
Nice article Andrew,
When I first heard that the extension .sucks was coming out I knew there would be all kinds of complaints about it. I just figured it would really only be the bigger companies that would do the complaining.
I didn’t realize that perhaps countries would be getting involved or have anything to do with this extension. I do understand them getting involved though.
I just can’t believe that ICANN would actually authorize this crazy extension to actually become a reality. These days the way ICANN is going, there isn’t much that I would be shocked about as far as new extensions.
It seems like ICANN is just not thinking rational sometimes as far as these new extensions and also the quantity of new extensions. It’s getting a little out of hand and I think ICANN is losing credibility in many peoples’ eyes.
This funny person seems to forget the most important thing to consider here: protecting yourself has a cost and Brands don’t want to have to pay for this. This is a typical speech from a non-user.
I notice there is another big ICANN decision coming soon with my domain estate involving normal “sucks”.com domains. I’m pretty much in favor of those as anyone has had a chance to buy a sucks domain for years. However this .sucks just seemed like a bad idea from the start and the extension really isn’t needed. Maybe this decision will decide it once and for all. However I doubt it. Well written article and thank you.